03.19.99
Media Ramble, Part 2
Mar 19 Fri (09 AM)
In a world where many-to-many communications is becoming larger and more pervasive, the producer is one voice of thousands, millions even. If you’re goal is to communicate then you show your product, your art, your music, your work. Then, usually, some people will be the receivers of that work.
On the that other end, there’s many potential recievers. I can open 5 browser windows and be looking at the work of a dozen people. I’m one of an audience of thousands in the course of a day that visits these sites.
My question comes down to this: When is it better to be the producer and when is it better to be the audience? Is there a moral reasoning that dictates when one is better than the other? What is the point at whch what you have to say becomes worth adding to the glut of information that is available? When is the time when it’s right for you to yell, to raise your voice, to attempt to be heard?
I suppose the surest sign is when people ask you to speak about and share your work. That direct response to your activities and the pull for more shows that someone finds what you’re doing or saying to be of significance. (This is assuming that your audience is discriminating in these terms.)
For me, I have to be extremely selective about what I read. I’m not a slow reader, but if I truly what something to stick in my head, I generally have to focus and concentrate. So the sites that I visit most often are those that focus on content. PCWorld’s web site is just disgusting when it comes to this, therefore I don’t go there very often. However scripting.com is great for this, and even one step further, I use the avantgo.scripting.com page, even at work on the end of a T1. That’s why I’m enjoying slashdot.org’s new system, where you can turn off all the tables. It’s amazing how much faster I can get through the new items there. I love it.
What these sites have done is focused. Focused on the content, distilling what is said down to the necessities. It may not generate grand artisitic notions, but it gets me what I want, as soon as I want it. And for that I thank them, and ask them to continue.